Relish the Possibilities

Summer’s bounty has arrived, and I, like many others who have a garden, am trying to figure out what to do with some of the veggies that I have oodles of.

As I have mentioned before, this is a bumper cucumber year. I have already tried my hand at refrigerator pickles. Now, I have decided on Dill Relish — that way I can also put to use a lot of that dill that has gone to seed. I have made Sweet Veggie Relish in the past, but never dill. So here are some pics of my experiment.

The recipe calls for 8lbs of cucumbers. We have so many, that I opted to double that — 16 lbs it is! I also made a couple of other changes — fresh dill seed instead of dried and slicing cukes instead of pickling. We use what we have, right???

Next comes the grinding. A food processor tends to make mush of the veggies, so I use an OLD SCHOOL grinder. We found this one at the Goodwill a few years back.

Next, wash and seed the cukes. If I had used the pickling variety, I could have avoided the seeding. At least the pigs will be happy with the innards.

Here’s the grinder in action. If you are curious, YES it takes FOREVER. If you choose to use one of these, don’t forget the bowl underneath. The dog loved the fresh cucumber water that results.

After letting the cukes sit in 2 quarts of water, 1 cup of salt, and 4 teaspoons of turmeric for 2 hours, it was time to cook the relish. I drained and rinsed the cukes in cold water. Then added 2 lbs of chopped onion, 1/3 cup of fresh dill seed, 2/3 cup sugar, and 2 quarts of vinegar. I didn’t think that was enough dill, so I sprinkled more over the top. Then I brought to a boil, simmered for 10 minutes then VOILA — RELISH.

After a 15 minute boiling-water canner — I had about 14 pints of dill relish. I think that should last us a while. A long while.

Here’s a view of our pantry. The sweet relish, apple butter, beets, and tomato sauce are from last year. Oh yeah, I processed 17 lbs of fresh tomatoes yesterday, too. I made salsa. Don’t be too impressed, I completely cheated and used Mrs. Wages packets. If you are curious, they are DELICIOUS. Use cider vinegar.

I started the relish and salsa canning around 10 AM. I finished around 4 PM.

We went out to dinner.

Fresh Pickles? Yes, Please!

As I mentioned earlier, we have a ton of cukes. This year I grew slicing cucumbers, although I honestly prefer pickling. Beggars can’t be…well, you know the rest.

So I decided with all of our new harvest goodies that I would make pickles, and delicious pickles I did make.

Here are the ingredients:

I also used cider vinegar, not pictured. I just LOVE the flavor.

First I simmered the following together until the sugar dissolved:

1 C White Vinegar

1/2 C Cider Vinegar

3 cloves garlic (picked fresh from our garden and cut in half)

1/3 C sugar

1 T mustard seed

1 T sea salt

I then poured the hot mixture over a bowl of thinly sliced cukes (1/2″ or so) and mixed in

1/3 C chopped fresh dill (also picked from my garden — how spoiled am I?)

1 Bay leaf

I didn’t measure the cucumbers, but I used about 1 and 1/2 large slicing cucumbers. I then covered the mixture and stuck it in the refrigerator until cold.

Here is the finished product before I covered and refrigerated them:

We ate these with dinner, although I could eat them anywhere. I am thinking about taking the bowl in with me in the shower tomorrow. Then I can wash away the evidence.

Perhaps those slicing cukes aren’t so bad after all.

Garlic and Basil and Dill, OH MY!

Finally — we are starting to see some of the “fruits” of our labor. Here are just a few of the things we have begun to harvest:

This may be my favorite thing that we grow: GARLIC. YUM. Garlic gives twice during the year — first when we harvest the delicious garlic scapes and now as we collect the full heads.

Here is our garlic in the drying racks. We will keep it here for a couple of weeks and then store it in our basement to use during the year. We will cut the “hair” off the bottom of the heads in a few days after the dirt has dried It is just easier that way.

We have A LOT of cucumbers and they are huge. I have also started harvesting some of the beets. This one was particularly large! Xandy yelled at me because I gave the beet greens to the pigs. Hey, a pig’s gotta eat too, right???

My basil has just taken off. Pesto, here I come.

Look at this fabulous dill. Hmmmm…and I have cucumbers…. I think I know what my next post will be! 🙂

Stay tuned for the rest. Tomatoes are coming, and I think that it may be time for coleslaw. Hooray for summer!